(TibetanReview.net, Jul01, 2018) – The Tibet issue continued to figure at the ongoing, 38th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, with the European Union and Germany raising the situation there as they reiterated their call on China for immediate release of the recently jailed Tibetan language rights activist Mr Tashi Wangchuk. He was sentenced to a five-year jail term by a Chinese court in Yushu Prefecture of Qinghai Province for allegedly inciting separatism based on no evidence.

Speaking Jun 27 during general debate on the agenda item ‘Human right situations that require the Council’s attention”, the EU and Germany referred to “massive infringements on the freedoms of religion, expression and association, and the right to a fair trial.”

The EU expressed serious concern over the detentions and trials of human rights defenders and lawyers, including Tashi Wangchuk, and urged China to release “all detained human rights defender and to thoroughly investigate reported cases of mistreatment and torture while in detention.” And it called on Beijing “to abide by its international obligations and respect freedom of religion or belief and expression and the rights of persons belonging to ethnic minorities.”

Germany separately called on China “to close all re-education camps, to immediately release all human rights defenders” including Tashi Wangchuk, “and to fully cooperate with the UN Special Procedures.” It raised concerns about “China’s deteriorating human rights situation, in particular concerning the Uyghurs, and other Muslim minorities, facing widespread discrimination and detention, as well as other ethnic and religious minorities, including Tibetans.”

The Council’s current session, the last for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, concludes on Jul 6.

Richard Gere, board chairman of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, met with Zeid Al Hussein in Geneva on Jun 26 and the two discussed the human rights situation in Tibet.